Russia Calls on US to Force an End to Ukrainian Crackdown

Russia is calling on the United States to force Ukraine to halt its ongoing military crackdown on armed pro-Russian separatists who are occupying buildings in eastern Ukraine.

Separately, at the United Nations, diplomats say Russia has recalled its ambassador to Moscow for emergency consultations.

Word of the recall came a short while after Moscow accused the Kyiv government of deploying military units and ultra-nationalist paramilitary units against the largely Russian-speaking population in eastern Ukraine. A Foreign Ministry statement referred to Ukrainian authorities as "under the patronage of the United States." It also said the situation demands "urgent action" by Washington to ensure the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the region.

The flurry of diplomatic exchanges capped a day of rising tensions along the Ukraine-Russian border, where a huge Russian military force is gathered. A Ukrainian diplomat at the United Nations told VOA that Moscow has doubled its military presence on the border to about 80,000 troops.

Russia ordered that force into new maneuvers Thursday, after fighting between Ukrainian security forces and armed pro-Russian separatists left as many as five militants dead in the flashpoint eastern city of Slovyansk. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Ukrainian push against the separatists a "crime."

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu described the new drills as a response to the Ukranian crackdown and to NATO troop maneuvers in allied Poland and the three Baltic states.

For his part, Interim Ukrainian President Oleksandr Turchynov, in a brief address to the nation, called for a Russian troop drawdown and an end to "threats and blackmail" from Moscow.

Ukraine earlier this week relaunched what it is calling "anti-terrorist" operations against separatists in about a dozen eastern cities. The separatists are demanding a referendum on whether to split with Ukraine and join Russia.

U.S. President Barack Obama, speaking to reporters Thursday in Tokyo, said Russia is not abiding by last week's Geneva agreement. He said he is not hopeful that Moscow will cooperate to ease regional tensions. That deal, approved by envoys from Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union was aimed at defusing the crisis.